... A three-month "Outside the Lines" investigation reveals that the scandal began to unfold in February as pitchers and catchers were starting a new season. A White Sox prospect in the Dominican informed the club that a team employee had asked for part of his signing bonus, and the complaint was passed up to MLB offices in New York.
Two weeks later, David Wilder, the senior director of player personnel for the White Sox, was making his way through customs at Miami International Airport when he was stopped. He was carrying about $40,000 in undeclared cash back from the Dominican. And a tale began to unravel that has shaken baseball from its Park Avenue offices in Manhattan to the muddy back roads of this small Caribbean nation.
MLB launched a probe, and so, too, did the Federal Bureau of Investigation. High-level scouts from the White Sox, Yankees and Red Sox have been fired; more teams are expected to be implicated, and more dismissals are anticipated. The FBI probe has stretched beyond the White Sox ...
"It was certainly happening for a while," says the MLB official with knowledge of the skimming probe. "With Wilder, it appears this has been going on for several years, and he has made hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more."
Former White Sox scout Victor Mateo, who was fired for his part in the scheme, tells "Outside the Lines" that Wilder directed him to overstate the talent of certain players, thus boosting their value and potential signing bonuses. That extra money, then, could go back to Wilder and Mateo ...
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/otl/news ... id=3609833
- Home Board index
- All times are UTC-04:00
- Delete cookies